When deciding on what to serve for dessert when entertaining a large group, it's often easiest to fall back on a shareable, one-pan pie or cake and call it a day. But if your kitchen's arsenal includes a muffin tin, you can easily prepare several individual desserts with the same amount of effort. Take these perfect-for-fall ginger cakes from chefs Tom Berry and Liz O’Connell. They're made with a standard cake batter that's sweetened with a simple date purée. After baking in a muffin tin, the charming cakes are slicked with a buttery rum glaze and topped with caramelized pears. Get the recipe here.

When Miami chef Timon Balloo cooked at the Beard House in early November, he took the ubiquitous canapé-tray combo of dates and bacon and packed it with Iberian flavor—literally. He stuffs the fruit with a combination of Manchego and linguiça,a garlicky sausage from Portugal. Get the recipe here.